The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1887-05-10
.fC. Coleman on Ramie Machines.

EDITOR GAZETTE viii YOU allow
me space in your columns to correct
my friend Lycan's article on Ramie
which appeared in your issue of Mar.
Sth, as it contains a great many mis-
STATEMENTS, and he has chosen to use
my name IN his attempts to re-write
the history of Ramie in the Islands.
l cannot allow him or anyone else to
drag my name at the tail end Of any
story they may 5Rgent without taking
steps to refute them. While Mr.. Ly-
can IS striving to write 'Ramie His
tory" it would be well either to state
the facts, or so post himself that he
may have sufficient knowledge of the
subject, that he may know whereof he
writes If he does not, the Hawaiian
Ramie Co. Limited" may be more
Emitted still than I desire to see it.
Misrepresentation never helped on
any cause, but are always dead drag
on it.
The first Ramie machine was i'm
ported to the Islands by Charles Al
fred Castle, brother of w. R. Castle,
shipped to him by the Russell & Err
win Manufacturing Co., of San Fran.
cisco. They obtained it, if my mem
DRY serves me right, from New Or
leans It was the "Bouchard Ma
chine" G. A Castle received it pre-
viogs to the summer of 1869, nearly
twenty years ago, instead of nearly
nine years. E. q. Hitchcock was at
the time interested with G. A. Castle
in trying the experiment with Ramie.
My attention was called to the Ra1nie
Question in 1869, by the prize offered
by the East Indian Government, and
my brother-in-l law. G. A. Castle. wished
me to turn my inventive talents in
that direction, and get up a machine
that would do the work required, tell
ing me that he was much disguised
at the failure of the machine he had
imported to do the work. G. A. Cas-
tie was much impressed with the de-
STABILITY of solving the question, and
believed there was money in it, as well
for the individuals who went into it
J as for the country at large where it
was successfully introduced, and he
believed the Islands well adapted to
the enterprise. But neither he nor
E. g. Hitchcock could give me any
accurate description of the machine
he imported, any more than have
been enabled to get an accurate des-
erection of the machine Mr. Lycan
has gotten up; there were rolls, belts
and gear wheels, and beaters, l was
told, and while was at Papaikou, In
1S7T-7S, 1 used the rolls and gears to
make sugar crusher, for the sugar
house, ont of the remains of the Bu-
chard machine; and that was the first
time / came in contact with that ma
chine.
On leaving the Islands in 1869, l
keRDt the matter in mind, and on my
return to Honolulu in 1875, I had,
from what data | had been fortunate
enough to come across, conceived
what l then thought to be the true
solution of the Ramie problem. land
on this point want to say, that l
have given the subject a great deal of
stuey, and have tried to keep up with
the progress of the attempts that have
been made for the unravelling Of this
puzzle, that l have not yet seen or
heard of any machine, or process that
has changed that view.) | acknowl
edge that my machine was an i'm
provement, and a decided one too,
over the one imported by G. A. Castle.
I also am quite as ready to admit,
from all that / have heard that Mr.
Lycan's machine is not an improvement
on the Coleman machine Whether
the patent is of any value practically,
time will tell. Lefranc had been in
terested in the Ramie since early in
the history of its introduction into
Now Orleans, from Mexico, and his
machine that,he sold to the California
Ramie Co., in '6S or 80, did nothing
more than break out the wood from
the bark and fiber; but still, it was to
my mind, better machine than the
one he sent, OF his Company sent to
the New Orleans Exposition, flor LIE
franc is dead, and that one has been
dropped. The parties who were there
with it, and had process for bleach
ing the fiber as an addition to the ma
chine, have gotten up another machine
and exhibited it at the second expo
sition there, but like its predecessor,
it would only take out the wood, and
would not take the gum out. 1t re
quirsd some three persons to run it,
and Die planters who were, and are
still interested in the subject called it
IA toy, plaything; not what was
wanted, even though it might have
done the work well.
The rewards offered by the Indian
Government were in 1869, and only
one machine appeared on the ground
for the trial, and that one, after a
weeks run, managed to only knock
out the wood from the fiber, with
very small per cent of the gummy
matter. Another reward was offered